Filling The Store Labor Productivity Gap

Labor costs run at between 10% and 13.5% of retailers' revenues, but store labor workload is soaring to accommodate more product introductions and promotions. At the same time, store associates must cope with much better informed consumers, shorter product life cycles, and more complex store assortments. Retail business process and applications professionals must focus attention on store labor productivity, whether in standardizing the planning and execution of store and merchandise resets in grocery, or in advising a consumer on the most suitable cosmetic for her tropical beach vacation. Deploying store labor productivity tools that improve planogram or floor set compliance can substantially reduce stock-outs and increase inventory turns and margins. Clienteling apps can develop the customer intimacy that specialty retail needs to compete with large format interlopers.